Crisis Management and Reporting of Rape
On Monday, February 25th, I attended the Ben Bronstein Lecture in Ethics and Public Relations, “Integrity in Times of Crisis.” Guest speakers were Genaro Armas, Jim Lukaszewski and Steve Manuel.
The main point that this lecture covered was really how poorly Penn State handled and is still handling the Sandusky Scandal. There were many flaws with the journalism and public relations regarding the event which included poor reporting, finger pointing and even blaming someone who was unable to testify. Problems were encountered regarding the involvement of many in the scandal, including the President of the University, Graham Spanier, all the way down to the graduate student who witnessed some of the crimes.
Another issue that was discussed during the lecture was the 24 hour news cycle. There are many flaws with the system that had been in place due to the constant flow of news. Deadlines were minutes, even seconds from one story to the next. This creates havoc on reporters because stories are published before facts and sources are checked. Also, the reputation of the victim of a crime can be tarnished if the facts are wrong. The recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary proved this theory as there were stories being published, and quickly retracted, about what had happened inside the school. This issue occurs often all over the world and should not be done in some instances due to the potential harm may cause.
Penn State’s way of handling the Sandusky scandal was done in a very poor manner. President Spanier fully supported two people who were suspected of obstruction of justice, child endangerment and many other charges. The Board of Trusties was cloaked in silence until finally releasing a statement. One of the few things that Penn State and State College did well, however, was not releasing the names of victims until the trial was over. The papers reported initially on the story, without fact checking, because of the 24 hour news cycle.
On occasion, the names of victims are used in newspapers without consent, which has the ability to really harm their reputation and how they are viewed. According to an article in Newspaper Research Journal, “Most editors do not see any long-term benefit from printing names of rape victims.” (Thompson 1995) With-holding the names of victims does not necessarily do any good either, however. Sometimes victims want to make sure their stories are told. To be heard is to be printed, but many victims do not want their name to be released until after the person who is being accused of the crime is in jail.
Both of these topics have to do with the 24 hour news cycle as discussed in the lecture. When the media gets ahold of names, they may feel compelled to run a story using these names, but these stories sometimes do not include all the facts. When using the name of a victim, the reporters are potentially putting the victims at risk for more attacks, especially if the names of their attackers are unknown. There are also certain groups that target women who have been raped. These groups make it hard for women to heal from the attacks. With the news going out minutes after it is known to reporters, these women are sometimes in danger from the person that attacked them. The attackers could want retribution on the women for reporting the rape, if they had not been persecuted for their crimes.
The Sandusky scandal was reported by the media, from the perspective of the victim, on a need to know basis. The public did not need to know the victims’ names because at the time of the wrongdoings, they were children and were unaware of what was happening to them. The ethical decision that the Board of Trustees and Spanier made in dealing with the victims was a different issue all together. The feelings of the victims were not taken into consideration. Instead, Spanier and Penn State pointed fingers saying the media should have reported and handled the situation better. Head football coach, Joe Paterno was fired because he himself did not further investigation into Sandusky when the inappropriate actions were reported. The Freeh Report was released saying Paterno could and should have done more. The lecture stated that unless we know what Joe knew, he is innocent. His legacy was tarnished and people will eventually forget what happened. Instead of raising awareness about the problem at hand, Penn State tried to hide what was done.
These issues not only display the ethics of news reporting at its finest, but also how making the ethical decision is not only a personal choice, but reflects the integrity of the person, institution or paper that are reporting the stories as well. To be ethical is to have integrity. To effectively report a story, a journalist must not only think of the content, but also the people who may be affected by it. A reporter can do more harm than good if inappropriately reporting on a rape case, or a scandal such as Penn State’s. Penn State could have avoided much of the turmoil that followed the revealing of the scandal if they had just addressed the issue upfront. Their crisis management failed, and as a result, the newspapers reported on the unethical way in which Penn State handled the Sandusky scandal.
Rape cases have to be reported on a case by cases basis. If releasing names is going to harm someone, it is not wise to run that story. This can be looked at as an ethical choice. The reporter should be responsible for the well-being of the victim, and should effectively decide if running the story will harm him or her.
These issues are still important to discuss because they really show what happened and what can be done by future reporters to prevent any of these situations from reoccurring. These two examples affect the student body of Penn State in different ways. The scandal happened where the students make their home. In addition, it dealt with both failed crisis management and also the dilemma of whether or not it is acceptable for newspapers to release the names of victims.
References
Thomason, T., & LaRocque, P. (1995). Editors still reluctant to name rape victims. Newspaper Research Journal, 16(3), 42-51.